The Stakes Are High

22 December 2025  I Samuel 1:24-28

The Fourth Monday in Advent

“…as long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord...” I Samuel 1:28

When St. Peter died, a victim of Nero’s persecution after the Great Fire of A.D. 64, he could see the obelisk that stands in St. Peter’s Square today. More than one Cardinal has stood on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and marveled that all the Caesars are gone; countless civilizations, empires, republics and presidents have risen and fallen, but the successor of St. Peter is still here.

It isn’t because of economic, political, or military power that there is still a Bishop of Rome. Those kinds of power are the very ones that are most transient. Turn every page in the Bible, and you will not find a single figure of real economic, political, or military significance.

If you really want to change the course of history, you don’t focus on the way that people make laws and governments, but on the way they make families, and parishes, and schools, and universities, and hospitals, and missions. Those things change the world more indelibly than laws or governments ever do.

Even Israel’s greatest ruler, King David, merits nothing more than a footnote in any world history textbook. He is lost in the shuffle of Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian emperors who ruled far larger realms for a far longer time.

The great figures of the Bible are more renowned by far for their moral, cultural, and spiritual power. If you really want to change the course of history, you don’t focus on the way that people make laws and governments, but on the way they make families, and parishes, and schools, and universities, and hospitals, and missions. Those things change the world more indelibly than laws or governments ever do.

Samuel wasn’t a general or a king. He was a Nazarite – a vow was made on his behalf as an infant, and was eventually made by him himself, that he would be totally consecrated to the Lord, and the signs of that consecration would be that he would never cut his hair, or drink a drop of alcohol, or have anything to do with a corpse. Hair keeps growing even when the body stops, and so is the most obvious form of life. Alcohol diminishes wisdom and falsifies courage. Corpses can do one thing only, and that is decay. Samuel’s whole life was focused on one thing, and that was the living God – the fulness of life, wisdom, courage, and creativity. Samuel wasn’t the first to take a Nazarite vow (Samson did, too – see Judges 13:3-7), and he wouldn’t be the last – John the Baptist took the vow also (cf. Matthew 3:4), as did St. Paul (cf. Acts 18:18, 21:23-26). Herod and Nero thought they could manage John and Paul simply by killing them. Today, however, people name their dogs Nero, and their sons Samuel, John, and Paul. Does anybody really think that kings and emperors have the power that can stand the test of time?

When families and parishes, schools and universities, hospitals and missions, are focused on the living God and Him alone, the cultures they create will form billions of people for centuries, even as civilizations, empires, republics, and presidents rise and fall. The problem with a lot of Christians and a lot of Churches today is that they think nothing is really at stake in our witness. It is why we still need Nazarites like Samuel, John the Baptist, and St. Paul. The stakes are heaven and hell. We need people who know the stakes, and where real power comes from.